Technology, Media & Telecommunications

Technology has dramatically transformed the way people and companies communicate, share information and conduct business.

GTCR has capitalized on the strong growth in information services and technology by investing in a variety of dynamic growth industries that use software, services, proprietary information and networks to help companies more efficiently communicate and conduct business with each other.

GTCR’s team of highly resourceful investment professionals continues to actively seek opportunities in software, services, data and information services, technology-based outsourcing and network-based services. We proactively recruit world-class management leaders and entrepreneurs to partner with in these industries.

Since 1997, GTCR has invested in nearly 30 companies in the technology, media and telecommunications sector. Continued advancements and innovations in technology, software, data and networks are creating exciting new investment opportunities for the firm.

Kevin Akeroyd was appointed CEO of Cision in August 2016. Prior to joining the company, Mr. Akeroyd was SVP and General Manager at Oracle, where he ran the Marketing Cloud business unit globally in over 29 countries. During this time, the company rose to the #2 Marketing and Ad Tech provider in the industry.

Prior to Oracle, Mr. Akeroyd held a number of senior leadership positions, including CEO of Data.com, a division of Salesforce.com; Digital Impact (which was acquired by Axiom); and RR Donnelley & Sons, where he was SVP of Field Operations for their Technology Business Unit.

Mr. Akeroyd attained a BA in Business Administration from the University of Washington in Seattle and went through the EPSO Program at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Frank Poore founded CommerceHub in 1997, and currently serves as the Company’s President and CEO. Frank is a pioneer in the retail supply chain space and has developed CommerceHub to be the leading distributed commerce network connecting supply, demand and delivery channels for top retailers and brands.

EaglePicher develops mission-critical batteries and advanced power management systems for a diverse range of defense, aerospace and medical applications. The company has cultivated multi-decade sole source relationships with its customers in support of high priority Department of Defense platforms, NASA space missions and the development of implantable cardiac monitoring devices, among many other use cases.

Gordon Walker is President and Chief Executive Officer of EaglePicher Technologies. Walker leads all aspects of the company’s eight U.S. manufacturing and research and development sites and the over 900+ employees in the U.S. EaglePicher is an industry leading producer of batteries, battery management systems and energetic devices. The company serves mission-critical requirements for aerospace, aviation, defense and medical battery applications. As the leading provider of thermal battery systems, to the Department of Defense, EaglePicher supplies power to a number of the U.S. military’s platforms including several precision guided systems. EaglePicher’s space heritage dates to the earliest days of the U.S. Space Program, for the first U.S. satellite in Explorer I to the Mars Rover and next manned missions. The company has provided lithium-ion batteries to military aircraft since 2000 and high altitude UAV’s since 2004.

Before joining EaglePicher Technologies, Walker was President of Knowles Electronics, a producer of specialty acoustic solutions for hearing aids, communications and premium audio markets.

Walker holds a Master of Business Administration from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Carleton College.

Fairway Outdoor Advertising is one of the largest outdoor advertising companies in the United States, operating approximately 20,000 bulletins, posters and digital billboard faces across key metro areas in the Southeast, Southwest and Midwest. Fairway provides strong customer service, outstanding creative support and a local focus to make outdoor advertising the medium of choice for its clients.

Kevin Gleason serves as President and CEO of Fairway Outdoor Advertising. Mr. Gleason has over 35 years of experience in the outdoor advertising industry, including serving as President and CEO of Adams Outdoor since 1991. Mr. Gleason joined Adams Outdoor in 1987, serving as General Manager of various local markets, and then as Executive Vice President at the corporate level.

Prior to joining Adams Outdoor, he was Vice President of sales for Naegele Outdoor Advertising, responsible for Southern California markets from 1985 to 1987. Mr. Gleason has previously served as Chairman as well as the Vice Chair of marketing of the Outdoor Advertising Association of America and has been honored by the association with the L. Ray Vahue Memorial Award. He was also a board member of the industry’s measurement bureau, the Traffic Audit Bureau.

Inteliquent is a leading communication enablement platform offering nationwide wholesale communication services. The company provides easy-to-use voice, messaging and mobility solutions to the wireless, over-the-top app, VoIP and wireline communications companies that choose to focus on customer-facing applications and service rather than infrastructure management.
Inteliquent combines an intuitive software-based application program interface with its nationwide network of physical switches and dedicated transport to offer its leading wholesale telecommunication services. Customers enjoy automated access to an industry-leading portfolio of communication services and extended service-area coverage.

Fritz Hendricks is the CEO of Inteliquent. Prior to this position, Mr. Hendricks led Onvoy as CEO since 2007 and was previously COO of the company. Prior to joining Onvoy, Mr. Hendricks had a long career at US WEST (now CenturyLink), where he held various leadership positions, including center and field operations, next-generation business and technology planning, engineering and systems automation, culminating in a role as Vice President of Operations for Qwest Global Services.

Mr. Hendricks holds a BS from the University of Bellevue and is a graduate of the Carnegie Mellon Information Networking Institute for Advanced Telecommunication Innovation.

Lytx (formerly known as DriveCam) is the leading provider of video telematics that help commercial and public sector fleets improve driver behavior and reduce collisions and collision-related expenses. The company serves some of the largest commercial fleets in the world and enables its clients to realize significant return on investment by lowering operating and insurance costs while achieving greater efficiency, safety and compliance.

Brandon Nixon is Chairman and CEO of Lytx. Prior to joining the company in 2008, Mr. Nixon was Senior Vice President at ViaSat, responsible for the company’s commercial businesses. Prior to ViaSat, he was CEO of Enerdyne Technologies, Inc., when it was acquired by ViaSat. Prior to joining Enerdyne, Mr. Nixon spent nearly two decades in a variety of executive roles at Hewlett-Packard, Texas Instruments, PCSI/Cirrus Logic, SAIC and private equity firm Housatonic Partners, where he founded the firm’s communications practice.

Mega Broadband Investments (“MBI”) was formed in October 2017 as a partnership between Phil Spencer and GTCR. MBI acquires and invests in rural-focused broadband assets serving residential and commercial customers in small- to middle-sized markets and rural geographies as part of a strategy to build a market-leading company in the space.

In October 2018, MBI acquired Northland Communications (“Northland”). Founded in 1981 and headquartered in Seattle, Washington, Northland provides high-speed data, television, and voice services to residential and business subscribers in rural markets in the Southeast, Texas, and the Northwest.

Location: Seattle, WA

Initial Investment: 10/01/18

Phil Spencer

Phil Spencer serves as CEO of MBI, the second Leaders StrategyTM partnership between GTCR and Mr. Spencer. Previously, Mr. Spencer was CEO of Rural Broadband Investments (“RBI”), a GTCR-funded rural cable provider that was acquired in May 2017 by Cable One, Inc. Through organic growth initiatives and five add-on acquisitions, RBI became a scaled cable provider with attractive financial and operational results.

Prior to his role at RBI, Mr. Spencer served as CEO of Windjammer Communications, a collection of rural cable systems previously owned by Time Warner Cable. From 2001 to 2008, he served in leadership positions, including ultimately CEO, at Everest Connections, a Kansas City cable system.

Park Place Technologies is a leading third-party maintenance (TPM) provider offering post-warranty data center maintenance services to clients around the world. The company provides its services to more than 5,000 organizations in over 70 countries, including service providers, SMB and Fortune 500 companies.

Chris Adams serves as President and CEO of Park Place Technologies, a position he has held since January 2019. Prior to becoming CEO, Mr. Adams served as President and Chief Operating Officer for six years. Since joining Park Place in 2006, Mr. Adams has overseen global operations, IT, product development, and M&A. He orchestrated 10 acquisitions over the past two years, growing Park Place from a North American to a Global organization, and he spearheaded the Company’s expansion into Europe, Asia, and Latin America. Under Mr. Adams’ stewardship, Park Place has grown from fewer than 100 employees to over 1,200 today.

Prior to Park Place, Mr. Adams was Director of Shared Services at CBIZ for eight years.

Mr. Adams earned his BBA in Accounting from the University of Toledo and his MBA in Entrepreneurship from the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University.

Simpli.fi is a leader in localized programmatic advertising. Simpli.fi works with buyers of localized advertising, including brands, agencies, local media groups, networks and trading desks. These companies utilize Simpli.fi to localize ad targeting and content, deliver performance on high volumes of hypertargeted campaigns and provide deep insights on their dynamic audiences.

Frost Prioleau, CEO, and Paul Harrison, CTO, co-founded Simpli.fi in 2010. Under their leadership, Simpli.fi has developed a leading unstructured audience data platform, robust analytics and integrated workflow applications that provide media groups and agencies the ability to efficiently target, bid and optimize digital ad buying at the data element level. Prior to founding Simpli.fi, Messrs. Prioleau and Harrison co-founded Personifi, a contextual ad targeting company, where they held the roles of CEO and CTO, respectively, prior to its sale to Collective Media in 2008.

Mr. Prioleau holds a Bachelor’s of Science degree from Princeton University. Mr. Harrison holds an M.B.A. from the University of Liverpool and a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from Texas A&M University.

Vivid Seats is the largest independent marketplace for tickets to live sports, concert, and theater events. Founded in 2001, Vivid Seats’ proprietary technology platforms and robust data analytics efficiently connect its vast network of sellers with live event customers. The Company offers consumers industry-leading affordability across one of the widest selections of premium tickets and event packages. Vivid Seats supports all orders with a comprehensive buyer guarantee and an in-house customer service team to ensure the safest and most convenient purchase experience.

Stan Chia is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Vivid Seats. Mr. Chia has experience at the world’s most innovative companies, most recently as Chief Operating Officer at Grubhub, growing the business from zero to $1.6 billion in delivered food, and expanding to 95,000 restaurants in 1,700 cities. He also held senior roles at Amazon, Cisco, and General Electric, where he led strategic businesses and organizations.

Mr. Chia has a bachelor's degree in industrial engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he holds a seat on the advisory board, and an MBA from Emory University. Mr. Chia also served in the Singapore Armed Forces as an Armored Infantry Platoon Commander and was recently featured in Crain’s “40 Under 40”.

XIFIN is a leading provider of cloud-based software and services to diagnostic service providers. XIFIN’s technology platform enables end-to-end connectivity from patient to payor, linking together the many stakeholders in healthcare delivery and optimizing for the best business and patient outcomes.

Lâle White is a nationally recognized expert in the field of medical financial management and regulatory compliance, with over 25 years of experience in information systems development and medical billing. She lectures extensively on these topics and has consulted for major laboratories and laboratory associations throughout the U.S.

She worked with HCFA and the U.S. Office of the Inspector General to develop the first OIG model compliance program. Ms. White was previously Vice President of finance of Laboratory Corporation of America (NYSE:LH), one of the largest clinical reference laboratories in the U.S., and its predecessor, National Health Laboratories (NYSE:NHLI), where she led the software development of several accounts receivable, inventory, cost accounting and financial management systems for the laboratory industry.

Ms. White has a BA in finance and an MBA from Florida International University.

Given our depth of knowledge in the Technology, Media & Telecommunications sector, GTCR recognized the emerging growth opportunities in electronic commerce-related professional services during the late 1990s. Throughout 1997 and 1998, GTCR met with dozens of management teams and reviewed over 100 transactions in this area. We saw significant potential for building a firm to help large companies develop electronic commerce (“e-commerce”) sites, integrate those sites into their existing enterprise applications and develop plans for dealing with the changes in business strategy and business process that result from building an e-commerce channel. At the time, there were few companies positioned to offer this broad array of services. We believed such a company would generate substantial revenues and be highly attractive to public market investors and strategic acquirers.

In early 1998, GTCR took the critical first step of finding an exceptional leader to build a market-leading company. Ken S. Bajaj was an executive who had helped found both EDS and Perot Systems and had built a successful company called I-Net. GTCR and Mr. Bajaj founded a management start-up called AppNet in June 1998 to acquire companies in the e-commerce professional services space. Over the next year, AppNet made 12 acquisitions and strategically transformed them into a single integrated company that delivered a full suite of e-commerce services, including business strategy consulting, e-commerce application development and web development. The company completed an initial public offering in June 1999 and was sold to Commerce One a year later.

Given the success of AppNet, GTCR partnered again with Mr. Bajaj and his CFO, Jack Pearlstein, to form DigitalNet in September 2001. DigitalNet was formed with the goal of building, through acquisition, a business within the broadly defined information technology (“IT”) services industry.

Continuing to dig deeply in the information services and technology sector, GTCR uncovered potential within the federal IT services industry. Working together, GTCR and Mr. Bajaj developed a compelling investment thesis to (1) aggressively focus on mission-critical, high-growth IT market segments, such as security, logistics, intelligence/information assurance and public safety/justice; (2) acquire a quality platform of sufficient size with a leveragable infrastructure and a high concentration of national priority programs; (3) build core capabilities and relationships to expand contracts, increase utilization, and improve efficiency and margins; and (4) position the company for an attractive sale opportunity to a large government IT and/or commercial IT strategic player.

Through our extensive research, GTCR learned that Getronics, a Dutch IT services consolidator, was experiencing liquidity challenges and might be interested in divesting its federal IT services division. The division’s customers and contracts were principally legacy relationships from I-Net, the same company Mr. Bajaj had successfully built and sold prior to partnering with GTCR to form AppNet. GTCR and DigitalNet concluded the division was an ideal platform to execute a consolidation play within the federal IT services market. GTCR was further attracted to the business because Mr. Bajaj had maintained meaningful relationships with many of the division’s managers and customers after it was sold. As well, we believed the growth rate and profitability of the division could be substantially transformed by improving its bid-and-proposal process.

In early 2002, Getronics hired Goldman Sachs to sell its federal IT services business. Although the business was shown to a number of strategic and financial buyers, the auction process was ultimately unsuccessful. The investment opportunity was an intensive corporate carve-out of a company losing market share. GTCR knew financial buyers could not rely on the incumbent management team to execute the corporate carve-out or improve the financial performance of the company—and that strategic buyers could not assume troubled contracts and risk a dilutive acquisition. Thus, GTCR and DigitalNet were well positioned to buy the company. In November 2002, DigitalNet reached an agreement with Getronics to acquire the federal IT services business.

During the first year of ownership, GTCR, Mr. Bajaj and Mr. Pearlstein substantially transformed the acquired business (now known as DigitalNet). Mr. Bajaj and Mr. Pearlstein successfully carved out the business from Getronics, including transitioning out of their data center. They also brought in new operations and project managers and built out the bid-and-proposal department to drive growth.

DigitalNet completed an initial public offering in October 2003, approximately one year after the closing of the acquisition. In February 2004, DigitalNet completed a follow-on acquisition, User Technology Associates (“UTA”). UTA was a federal IT services contractor with a robust book of contracts servicing the Department of Justice, the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Labor.

During the summer of 2004, several strategic buyers in the federal IT services industry approached DigitalNet on an informal basis regarding a potential sale. Since the initial acquisition, Mr. Bajaj has worked to foster personal relationships with many of the managers of potential acquiring companies. Through one such relationship, Mr. Bajaj learned that British Aerospace (“BA”) was highly interested in building its capabilities in the federal IT services sector. As such, BA was particularly interested in DigitalNet and its extraordinary contractual relationships with the Department of Defense, the Department of State and the National Security Agency. BA’s management was introduced to DigitalNet’s management, and negotiations regarding a sale ensued.

CAMP Systems: Building A Market-Leading Company Through Strategic Acquisitions

Ken Gray | CAMP Systems

GTCR actively tracked the evolution of CAMP Systems for years given its critical role in the business aviation ecosystem and our knowledge of the sector with our investment in Landmark Aviation. GTCR ultimately partnered with executives Ken Gray (CEO) and Vibby Gottemukkala (COO) as part of the acquisition of CAMP in 2012. Ken and Vibby were accomplished industry veterans who led the transformation of CAMP from a paper-based provider of aircraft maintenance information with limited market share in 2000 to a SaaS solution with a leading market position and nearly ubiquitous OEM relationships. Ken and Vibby had a history of value creation and had executed successful exits for two prior owners.

CAMP is the industry standard for aircraft maintenance tracking with an attractive business model characterized by low churn, strong pricing, high visibility and strong cash flow. GTCR’s unique insight and experience in the business aviation sector not only helped us understand management’s vision for growth but also inspired ideas on potential organic and inorganic opportunities that fell outside of CAMP’s roadmap.

While the management team first focused on ensuring the continued execution of the core business, the pursuit and execution of additional growth vectors was a critical initiative under GTCR ownership. After completing the acquisition of competitor AvTrak, CAMP management then expanded the Engine Condition Trend Monitoring (ECTM) offering through the strategic acquisitions of the Trend Group and Honeywell’s ECTM business.

With the ECTM business at scale, management turned their focus to leveraging CAMP’s critical role in the business aviation ecosystem to better service aircraft maintenance and repair centers. Through CAMP’s acquisitions of CORRIDOR and Component Control, the business expanded its addressable market by providing workflow software that offers deep integration between CAMP’s aircraft maintenance data and repair center ERP systems.

Throughout the investment, Ken and Vibby also continuously pursued additional OEM partnerships. Over the first 3 years of GTCR ownership, CAMP added 5 additional OEM airframes before expanding into helicopters with a landmark partnership with Bell in November 2015. In 2016, CAMP partnered with Gulfstream, the last remaining major fixed wing OEM not on the CAMP network.

During GTCR’s partnership with Ken and Vibby, CAMP added 4,000 aircraft, 12,000 engines and 1,300 maintenance facilities across the globe while also maintaining strong organic growth outside of M&A activities and new OEM partnerships.

Six3 Systems is a prototypical example of GTCR’s Leaders Strategy™. Six3 was formed in 2009 with Bob Coleman, former President and COO of ManTech International, and Jack Pearlstein, former CFO of GTCR portfolio companies Solera Holdings, DigitalNet Holdings and AppNet.

GTCR formed Six3 with Mr. Coleman and Mr. Pearlstein to pursue acquisitions that would fill an unmet need of providing advanced and highly technical processing and analytical capabilities to the U.S. government. With significant consolidation taking place in the defense services sector, the Six3 thesis was to build a mid-market provider that combined the agility and innovation of small companies with the requisite scale and scope to service major programs for the government.

From the outset, Six3 focused on the mission-critical and high-growth areas of signal processing and analysis, intelligence services and cyber security. GTCR and Six3 collectively considered and reviewed over 100 potential acquisition targets and acquired four companies that best fit the Six3 vision.

Each of the four acquired companies was founded by an entrepreneur with a unique background and cultural approach. GTCR and Six3 were able to employ a complex capital structure, including various tranches of preferred and common equity, seller notes and other seller interests, to incentivize key management members to continue in their leadership roles. With this proper alignment of incentives, Six3 was able to integrate the acquired companies while protecting the entrepreneurial spirit that created each company’s historical and ongoing success. Six3 was also able to provide centralized business development, finance and G&A support while ensuring the unique strengths and cultures of each business remained in place. The integrated business was able to cross-sell its unique solutions to new agencies and pursue larger contracts previously unavailable to the individual companies.

We believe the combination of a well-defined thesis and successful integration translated into exceptional operating performance. Over a five-year period, Six3 was able to organically grow earnings while many of its competitors were shrinking, thus creating a company of strategic significance in the industry.

After a robust process, GTCR announced in October 2013 the sale of Six3 Systems to CACI international. The sale was particularly meaningful in that the process was composed of solely strategic buyers who understood the value of Six3’s capabilities. This may be best reflected by the fact that it represented the largest of CACI’s 55 acquisitions in its history, which we believe illustrates the strategic value and highly specialized capabilities built by Mr. Coleman and his team.

Always seeking out the best management leaders, GTCR was introduced to Tony Aquila in January 2004. At the time, Mr. Aquila was the COO of Mitchell International, a leading provider of automotive claims management and estimatics services. Estimatics providers collect and distribute data for repair shops and insurance companies to help adjudicate the automotive insurance claims process.

In January 2005, GTCR joined forces with Mr. Aquila to form a management start-up. The goal was to acquire a leading automotive claims management services provider. There were three major estimatics providers in the U.S., each competing fiercely for a limited set of insurance customers. GTCR and Mr. Aquila collectively identified a division within ADP as the most compelling target in the sector. The business was believed to be under-managed and not a strategic fit with the core ADP payroll business. GTCR felt Mr. Aquila and his team brought unique experience and industry expertise that could facilitate significant improvements in operations.

In June 2005, GTCR and Mr. Aquila contacted ADP about carving out its estimatics business. ADP was receptive to a transaction because it believed GTCR and Mr. Aquila would continue to provide high levels of service to the division’s large insurance clients, also customers of ADP’s larger payroll division. As a result, we were able to initiate diligence on a proprietary basis following these discussions and, after a market check by the board, announced the acquisition in January 2006. Upon closing, the company was renamed Solera.

GTCR was driven by the compelling opportunity to acquire the leading global provider of automotive claims processing solutions with a differentiated management angle. Mr. Aquila brought industry expertise, a strategic vision and operational focus. CFO Jack Pearlstein, with whom GTCR had previously partnered in AppNet and DigitalNet, brought the financial sophistication and experience required to carve out and operate a standalone, multinational entity.

Following the acquisition, Solera executed its strategic and operational transformation plan. Mr. Pearlstein led the creation of a standalone back office, improved the company’s financial and operating reporting capabilities, and prepared the entity for a public offering. Concurrently, Mr. Aquila and his team stabilized performance in the United States, where the company had recently lost several important customers, and also developed a robust international growth plan that included entering new geographies and expanding the product suite.

Solera completed an IPO in May 2007, approximately one year after the acquisition. Following the IPO, Solera continued to perform well through a combination of revenue growth and operating efficiency improvements.

This information represents the approximate number of platform acquisitions and add-on acquisitions, and the aggregate purchase price associated with such acquisitions, completed by GTCR’s Technology, Media & Telecommunications Group since 2000, as of November 30, 2017. The actual amounts may exceed the amounts set forth above and, with respect to purchase price, include the amount paid by all investors in the applicable GTCR portfolio company. This information is for illustrative purposes only and reflects investments that were made across multiple funds during different economic cycles. This information does not relate to fund or portfolio company performance. If a portfolio company has been categorized in more than one industry group by GTCR, it may be separately included in the number of platform acquisitions and add-on acquisitions, and the aggregate purchase price associated with such acquisitions, completed by each group. Please click here for a complete list of all active and prior GTCR portfolio companies, including portfolio companies by industry sector. See Terms of Use for important additional information.

This information represents the approximate number of platform acquisitions and add-on acquisitions, and the aggregate purchase price associated with such acquisitions, completed by GTCR’s Technology, Media & Telecommunications Group since 2000, as of November 30, 2017. The actual amounts may exceed the amounts set forth above and, with respect to purchase price, include the amount paid by all investors in the applicable GTCR portfolio company. This information is for illustrative purposes only and reflects investments that were made across multiple funds during different economic cycles. This information does not relate to fund or portfolio company performance. If a portfolio company has been categorized in more than one industry group by GTCR, it may be separately included in the number of platform acquisitions and add-on acquisitions, and the aggregate purchase price associated with such acquisitions, completed by each group. Please click here for a complete list of all active and prior GTCR portfolio companies, including portfolio companies by industry sector. See Terms of Use for important additional information.

This information represents the approximate number of platform acquisitions and add-on acquisitions, and the aggregate purchase price associated with such acquisitions, completed by GTCR’s Technology, Media & Telecommunications Group since 2000, as of November 30, 2017. The actual amounts may exceed the amounts set forth above and, with respect to purchase price, include the amount paid by all investors in the applicable GTCR portfolio company. This information is for illustrative purposes only and reflects investments that were made across multiple funds during different economic cycles. This information does not relate to fund or portfolio company performance. If a portfolio company has been categorized in more than one industry group by GTCR, it may be separately included in the number of platform acquisitions and add-on acquisitions, and the aggregate purchase price associated with such acquisitions, completed by each group. Please click here for a complete list of all active and prior GTCR portfolio companies, including portfolio companies by industry sector. See Terms of Use for important additional information.